The role of sleep in changing our minds: a psychologist's discussion of papers on memory reactivation and consolidation in sleep

The group of papers on memory reactivation and consolidation during sleep included in this volume represents cutting edge work in both animals and humans. They support that the two types of sleep serve different necessary functions. The role of slow wave sleep (SWS) is reactivation of the hippocampal-neocortical circuits activated during a waking learning period, while REM sleep is responsible for the consolidation of this new learning into long-term memory. These studies provide further insights into mechanisms involved in brain plasticity. Robeiro has demonstrated the upregulation of an immediate-early gene (IEG zif 268) to waking levels, which occurs only in REM and only in connection with new learning. McNaughton and his group have identified electrical indicators that the hippocampus and neocortex are talking to each other by testing the coactivation of hippocampal sharp wave bursts in SWS and shifts from down to up states of activation in the neocortex. In human studies Smith's group reports work on individual differences such as intelligence and presleep alcohol that affect postsleep performance, and Stickgold and collaborators report that a short nap will improve performance if it contains REM sleep. Payne and Nadel suggest that the recall benefit associated with REM sleep may be due to its association with increased cortisol levels. These papers are important not only in their individual contributions but also in revitalizing the work coordinating waking and sleep. This promises to further the understanding of how our unique capacity to learn from experience and modify our behavior takes place.     

The effects of prompting and feedback on drivers' stopping at stop signs

Complete stops at a high-traffic intersection on the campus of a public university were increased with a prompting and consequence intervention. Data were collected at two opposing stop signs (Stop A and Stop B); however, the intervention was implemented only at Stop A. During the intervention, a volunteer stood next to Stop A holding a poster that read, "Please Stop--I Care," with "Thank You For Stopping" on the reverse side. The poster was held by the volunteer so that drivers approaching Stop A could read the sign. Drivers approaching Stop B could see the volunteer but could not read the sign. When vehicles approaching Stop A made a complete stop, the volunteer flashed the "thank you" side of the poster to the driver. The strategy was evaluated using a multielement design. The intervention increased stops completed at Stop A from a baseline average of 13% to an intervention average of 52%. Stop B also showed improved stopping, from a baseline average of 6% to an intervention average of 28%. Data showed no relation between complete stops made and the drivers' use of turn signals and safety belts.     

Psychoanalysis and theology: Two dialectics

In the vocabulary of psychoanalysis, health means something roughly correlative to salvation in the vocabulary of theology. Both health and salvation assume some manner of change from a previous pathological or doomed state. Against this background this paper seeks to delineate two different possible models of change: One in which realityper se is changed as opposed to one in which theperception of reality is changed. In theology, the former can be represented by Paul and the latter by John. In psychoanalysis, Freud represented each point of view in his structural and topographical paradigms respectively. In contemporary psychoanalytical therapy, Otto Kernberg represents the former and Jacques Lacan the latter.He maintains a private practice of psychotherapy at the Parkwood mental Health Center. This paper is based on a presentation to the Faculty Reseacrh Forum of Candler School of Theology. For their editorial assistance, the author is grateful to jean E. Levenson, M.Div., and David M. Moss, Ph.D.     

Gustatory,salivary, and oral thermal responses to solutions of sodium chloride at four temperatures

Using eight highly trained Ss, sensitivity to near threshold levels of NaCl was significantly greater at solution temperatures of 22° and 37°C than at 0° or 55°C. Perceived intensity increased linearly with concentration (0.04%–0.64% NaCl) at all four solution temperatures, with the two lower considered slightly more intense than the two higher temperatures. Biomodal distributions were obtained for hedonic judgments at all temperatures, with three Ss showing greater liking and five Ss showing greater disliking of increasing concentrations. Parotid salivary flow was inversely related to the taste sensitivity, i.e., significantly lower flow rates were obtained for the intermediate than for the hot or cold solutions, independent of salt content. When solution temperature was O°C, the minimum temperature of the oral cavity was 9°–20°C; when solution temperature was 55°C, the maximum temperature of the oral cavity was46°–49°C.     

Fathers' participation in the care of their preschool children

Correlates of fathers' participation in the care of their preschool children were investigated, using two indices of participation: (a) child-care tasks performed by the father independently; and (b) child-care tasks performed jointly with the mother. Subjects were 79 fathers and mothers of Caucasian middle-class 4-year-old girls and the girls themselves, and 36 fathers and mothers of a matched sample of preschool boys. Major factors examined as possible influences on participation included (a) maternal work-role pattern; (b) fathers' and mothers' sex-role ideology; and (c) family work load, i.e., family size and number of children under 6. Indices of variables conceptualized as possible consequences of participation included (a) girls' sex-role stereotyping; (b) fathers' self-perceptions of masculinity and femininity; and (c) wives' role-pattern satisfaction. Results indicated that fathers' independent (but not joint) performance of child-care tasks was significantly and positively related to maternal work-role variables and to nontraditional sex-role ideology of fathers and wives, but not to family work load. Independent (but not joint) participation was significantly and negatively related to daughters' stereotyping and to fathers' perceptions of themselves as stereotypically masculine. Wives' role-pattern satisfaction was unexpectedly found to be negatively related to both joint and independent participation.Data reported here were gathered as part of a research project supported by NIMH Grant #25215. The authors wish to acknowledge the collaboration of Susan Dibner.     

Private wishes: Gender similarities and differences

Preference for a variety of “private wishes” were investigated in two studies. In Study 1, two college samples and two samples of pedestrians selected 10 out of a list of 48 wishes. In Study 2, two college samples rated 20 wishes. Although ethnicity data were not gathered, the populations from which the samples were drawn are ethnically diverse. Correlations of preferences between women and men within samples averaged .86 in Study 1 and .85 in Study 2, indicating a great deal of similarity between genders in their overall wish preferences. By far, the largest gender difference was for the wish “To have sex with anyone I choose.” Men consistently preferred this wish across all samples and age groups. These results point to sexuality in its interpersonal context as a primary focus of difference in the inner emotional lives of women and men.     

A Comparison of Feminist and Nonfeminist Women's and Men's Reactions to Nonsexist and Feminist Counseling: A Replication and Extension

In Study 1 the authors examined the reactions of 159 feminist and nonfeminist college women to videotaped versions of nonsexist-humanistic, liberal feminist, and radical feminist approaches to counseling. College women rated all counselors similarly on the dimensions of attractiveness, expertness, and trustworthiness and on other measures of counselor preference. Feminist counselors, however, were rated as more likely than were nonsexist counselors to pursue various feminist goals. In Study 2 the authors used the same methods to examine the reactions of 123 men to nonsexist, liberal, and radical feminist counselors. In general, men's responses were similar to those of women.     

Forgetting in recognition memory with and without recollective experience

Retention interval was manipulated in two recognition-memory experiments in which subjects indicated when recognizing a word whether its recognition was accompanied by some recollective experience ("remember") or whether it was recognized on the basis of familiarity without any recollective experience ("know"). Experiment 1 showed that between 10 min and 1 week, "remember" responses declined sharply from an initially higher level, whereas "know" responses remained relatively unchanged. Experiment 2 showed that between 1 week and 6 months, both kinds of responses declined at a similar, gradual rate and that despite quite low levels of performance after 6 months, both kinds of responses still gave rise to accurate discrimination between target words and lures. These findings are discussed in relationship to current ideas about multiple memory systems and processing accounts of explicit and implicit measures of retention.